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A Case Study of Bangladesh and the Rohingya University of Central Florida STARS Honors Undergraduate Theses UCF Theses and Dissertations 2018 The Implications of Domestic Party Ideologies on Refugee Policy: A Case Study of Bangladesh and the Rohingya Samuel S. Schiffer University of Central Florida Part of the Comparative Politics Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the UCF Theses and Dissertations at STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Undergraduate Theses by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Schiffer, Samuel S., "The Implications of Domestic Party Ideologies on Refugee Policy: A Case Study of Bangladesh and the Rohingya" (2018). Honors Undergraduate Theses. 307. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses/307 THE IMPLICATIONS OF DOMESTIC PARTY IDEOLOGIES ON REFUGEE POLICY: A CASE STUDY OF BANGLADESH AND THE ROHINGYA by SAMUEL S. SCHIFFER A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Honors in the Major Program in Political Science in the College of Sciences and in the Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term, 2018 Thesis Chair: Nikola Mirilovic, PhD. ABSTRACT Why do some political parties in Bangladesh discriminate against the Rohingya, while some do not? Much has been written about the conflict in Myanmar, but the plight of Rohingya in Bangladesh remains understudied. This lack of understanding is underscored by the five million Syrian refugees fleeing their own civil war that dominates the news and the attention of scholars. The Rohingya, however, are stateless: they are denied citizenship in their native Myanmar and are forced to find refuge in whichever country will take them. Much has been published that links immigration policy to security considerations and the national identity and ethnic homogeneity of the host country. I argue that it is the domestic politics of Bangladesh that directly influences the policies concerning, and subsequent treatment of, the Rohingya migrants. This leads back to the question I pose: why is it that some political parties in Bangladesh actively support the ethnic group while others actively discriminate against the Rohingya? I argue that it is the individual ideologies of that party that can be directly attributed to their stance on Rohingya. Using qualitative analysis, I measure how a party's foreign policy, social policy, and political ideology affects that organization’s attitude toward Rohingya refugees. Understanding the largely political nature of refugee policy will allow policy-makers, intergovernmental organizations, and human rights groups to be better equipped to improve the conditions of, not only the Rohingya population, but other vulnerable refugee groups that seek safety in foreign states. ii DEDICATIONS For the Rohingya of Myanmar, Bangladesh, and wherever they are pushed. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Christopher Faulkner for making the plight of the Rohingya known to me. Thank you to Dr. Mirilovic and the rest of my committee for teaching me the ways of the academic. Thank you to RR for reminding me to laugh. Thank you to Eileen and Steve Schiffer for giving me to opportunity to go to college and pursue what I love. Thank you to Leonard Cohen, Ought, and Kamasi Washington for keeping me company. And a most special thanks to the media outlets, human rights organizations, and scholars that are making the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya known worldwide. Without your tireless effort and acute focus on the abuses they face every day, the Rohingya would be wiped from their ancestral home and the face of the Earth without a second glance. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1 BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................... 4 ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS ........................................................................................ 14 HYPOTHESIS AND METHODOLOGY ................................................................................. 21 THE AWAMI LEAGUE ............................................................................................................ 27 Awami League Social Values ................................................................................................................. 27 Awami League Political Ideologies ........................................................................................................ 29 THE BANGLADESH NATIONALIST PARTY ..................................................................... 36 Bangladesh Nationalist Party Social Values ........................................................................................... 36 Bangladesh Nationalist Party Political Ideologies .................................................................................. 37 JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI ................................................................................................................. 44 Jamaat-e-Islami Social Values ................................................................................................................ 44 Jamaat-e-Islami Political Ideologies ....................................................................................................... 45 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 52 RESEARCH LIMITATIONS .................................................................................................... 53 WORKS CITED.......................................................................................................................... 54 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Independent Variables and Hypothesized Relationship with Dependent Variable ........ 26 Table 2: Independent Variables Values ........................................................................................ 26 Table 3: Parties and Respective Independent Variable Values .................................................... 26 vi INTRODUCTION Why do some political parties in Bangladesh discriminate against the Rohingya, while some do not? Much has been written about the conflict in Myanmar, but the plight of Rohingya in Bangladesh remains understudied. With estimates putting the number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh at 800,000, substantive research on why they are mistreated is left wanting. This lack of understanding is underscored by the five million Syrian refugees fleeing their own civil war that dominates the news and the attention of scholars. The Rohingya, however, are stateless: they are denied citizenship in their native Myanmar and are forced to find refuge in whichever country will take them. This entails perilous journeys in the Bengal Sea with potential destination countries literally pushing them away, back out to sea. For this reason, many seek safety in Bangladesh, which shares a small land border with Myanmar. Much has been published that links immigration policy to security considerations and the national identity and ethnic homogeneity of the host country. I argue that it is the domestic politics of Bangladesh that directly influences the policies concerning, and subsequent treatment of, the Rohingya migrants. This leads back to the question I pose: why is it that some political parties in Bangladesh actively support the ethnic group while others actively discriminate against the Rohingya? I believe that it is the individual ideologies of that party that can be directly attributed to their stance on Rohingya. Using qualitative analysis, I will measure how a party's social policy and political ideology affects that organization’s attitude toward Rohingya refugees. Understanding the largely political nature of refugee policy will allow policy-makers, intergovernmental organizations, and human rights groups to be better equipped to improve the 1 conditions of, not only the Rohingya population, but other vulnerable refugee groups that seek safety in foreign states. The United Nations determines a refugee to be: A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.1 For the purpose of this study, the above UN definition of a refugee will be used to describe the Rohingya migrants. They are the victims of sectarian persecution in Myanmar, involving rape, displacement, and killing. They are also denied citizenship in Myanmar, further placing them within the confines of the UN definition as “...not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence…” Because worldwide refugee numbers are ever-increasing, this study will focus on the Rohingya experience outside of Myanmar as a refugee in Bangladesh and act as a case study of the implications domestic politics have on refugee populations within host countries. There is an abundance of scholarly work on the factors
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